According to a new survey from Harris Interactive, about half of Americans (51 percent) say they will be purchasing toys as gifts this holiday season, while two in five (40 percent) will not, and one in ten (9 percent) are not sure. About three-quarters of those with a child in the household (72 percent) say they plan to purchase toys compared to 42 percent of those without a child in the household. The poll also shows that toy manufacturers should expect slightly less in sales compared to the last two years. In 2009 and 2010 over half of Americans (54 percent and 53 percent respectively) said they were planning to purchase toys as gifts.

While more than two in five toy purchasers (46 percent) say their spending will be no different than last year, over one-third (35 percent) say they will spend less than they did last year while 16 percent say they will spend more than they did last year. Among those toy purchasers with a child in the household 16 percent say they will spend more than they did last year, over two in five (43 percent) say their spending will be no different and two in five (39 percent) say they will spend less than they did last year.

So what are the items that children want for the holiday season? It seems that video games and arts and crafts projects will top the list. Over two in five toy purchasers (45 percent) say they will purchase children's books, while one-third will buy games for consoles (33 percent) and three in ten will buy arts and crafts (29 percent). One-quarter (25 percent) will purchase board games and dolls (25 percent) as gifts. Just over one in five will purchase building blocks and bricks (23 percent), one in five will purchase handheld electronic games (20 percent) and sports equipment (19 percent) while 7 percent will purchase game consoles. One-quarter will purchase something else in terms of toys for kids (25 percent) and one in five are just not sure (20 percent).

Those with a 6-9 year old in the household, will buy children's books (59 percent), followed by games for consoles (52 percent) and board games (45 percent). Looking at those with a tween (ages 10-12) in the household, they are purchasing games for consoles (67 percent), then children's books (43 percent) and board games (41 percent) while those with a teen (13-17) are buying games for consoles (62 percent), sports equipment (37 percent) and children's books (34 percent).

Over half of toy purchasers will be shopping for toys at large discount stores (56 percent), while over one-quarter (27 percent) will mostly shop online for toys this year. One in ten (10 percent) will mostly shop at a national toy retail chain store while 4 percent will shop at a local, privately owned specialty toy store. Women are more likely to shop mostly at a large discount store for toys (61 percent vs. 50 percent of men) while men are more likely to shop for toys at a national toy store retail chain (14 percent vs. 6 percent of women).

The Harris Poll is based on the responses of 2,463 adults surveyed online between October 10 and 17, 2011 by Harris Interactive.

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PHX Corp: I launched my spotify account today, and I kinda went a little overboard with adding music03/31/2015 - 3:59pm

Sora-Chan: Con't. Games like AC are a pain to someone like me who likes to play games in order. So when a game gets too many releases too quickly, it puts me off. Only exceptions are games that have no interconnected underlying stories like the FF games.03/31/2015 - 2:53pm

Sora-Chan: Wikipedia has rarely let me down on matters like this. But yeah... AC needs a break.. like two.. or three... or eight years.03/31/2015 - 2:51pm

Conster: There's 9 already?! I think I played 1, 2, and the ones inbetween 2 and 3.03/31/2015 - 2:23pm

Sora-Chan: Con't There are now Nine... of just the main entries into the series. There are 13 more in the "other games" department.03/31/2015 - 2:15pm

Sora-Chan: I tried to get into AC. Was having a decent time with the first one, at which point they had already released three titles. Then a fourth came out... then a fifth... the wall kept growing before I could finish the first.03/31/2015 - 2:14pm

Daniel Lewis: I think ubisoft should give AC a break before it's milked to death,and i'm a big fan of the games03/31/2015 - 1:15pm

Daniel Lewis: The only thing said i disagree with is the final quote on Men's experiences are seen to be universal but women are gendered,though doesn't anita say that games with male protagonists are male power fantasies,so in turn both are gendered03/31/2015 - 1:08pm

Daniel Lewis: i found the video to be much better than any of the TvW series and it's about time the positive women are put in the spotlight03/31/2015 - 1:06pm

Daniel Lewis: So feministfrequency released a positive female character video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gXmj2yJNUmQ03/31/2015 - 1:05pm

Daniel Lewis: I think the guy who made the direct leak said it was an april fools joke when a real one was announced03/31/2015 - 12:43pm

MaskedPixelante: No way Nintendo would let information like that get out. Remember, they shut down a memoir about the localization of Earthbound by enforcing a 20 year old NDA on the author.03/31/2015 - 12:42pm

james_fudge: Conster: the larger issue is that Ind. does not protect LGBTQ+ people under state law03/31/2015 - 12:11pm

PHX Corp: @MP I think it is confirmed(not an April Fools joke) http://mynintendonews.com/2015/03/31/nintendo-direct-confirmed-for-wednesday-april-1st/03/31/2015 - 12:00pm

Conster: Apparently Pence intends to amend SB101 so denying service isn't allowed - without explicitly protecting LGBT+ and while still allowing the many other things you can get away with now if it's motivated by your religious beliefs.03/31/2015 - 11:53am

MaskedPixelante: http://mynintendonews.com/2015/03/30/rumour-nintendo-direct-on-april-1st/ A supposed full leak of tomorrow's Nintendo Direct, so you can all laugh and laugh about how wrong it is.03/31/2015 - 11:35am

PHX Corp: http://kotaku.com/why-a-tekken-7-character-is-being-called-a-phoney-1694724959 Why a Tekken 7 Character Is Being Called a Phoney03/31/2015 - 10:08am

Michael Chandra: Argh. Anyway, I'm glad that move was made. Wonder if it counts, can he just declare it like that? 03/31/2015 - 9:27am